Star Wars - Edge of the Empire

2. The Jewel of Chandrila

Heist Homework

The plan to steal the JEWEL OF CHANDRILA is in motion! Having gathered preliminary information on the bidders and racers it’s now time to start to dig deeper into their lives and personal motivations.

While the rest of the crew is making plans for the heist – Guffy Gar’gar and Kraus Gilb have headed for the seedy side of Cloud City – looking to score spice and infomations on the Cloud City Grand Prix.

The pair of spacers find themselves at The Podracers Retirement, a popular hangout for various mechanics and other crew members involved in the race. Greasy in more ways then one, the cantina is dimly lit and tainted with a vague undertone of hydraulic fluid beneath the reek of heated swill. Most of the patrons are dressed in shabby and oil-stained coveralls, as is the cantina staff itself.

They take a seat at the bar and start drinking, grilling the bar tender about the upcoming race. The bar tender points out Ol’ Sav sitting in the corner for more information. They come to him with drinks. Charming him proves to be difficult, but after a couple of pints of Corellian Ale he loosens up a bit. Ol’ Sav has been on a race team every year since the beginning, but this year is the first he’s not participating “Too old for these young’ens, I’d reckon, no ones offered me a job.”

Kraus attempts to get him to reveal how they might get their hands on a cloudcar to try out before the race, but he only can suggest they buy one or rent a striped down tourist model from the upper level. The spacers press on him for information about the race teams, but he doesn’t offer anything more then what they’ve already found out. He does however point them to two possible leads for copilots. One’s in retirement after a close call in the Grand Prix a few years back and the other is a young upstart named Thera Morrow. She’s placed well in the amateur circuit the past three years, but hasn’t found the sponsorship to get into the Grand Prix. She can be found up at landing bay P4.

Lastly, Kraus clumsly attempts to ask him where booster blue can be found. Ol’ Sav sees right through him and warns him to not get too caught up in the stuff, but points him to a docking bay around level 124. Down at the back door of the bay, after a secret knock, the dealer sells the pair 5 canisters. Guffy holds onto 2, Kruas downs one and holds onto the other two. They ask the dealer about explosives and the shifty human tells them to find Moz Boshaw, a Trandosian weapons dealer operating out of Market Row.

Meanwhile, Xagrab wonders through the halls of Cloud City, when someone yells his name in his native tongue. A Gank approaches him “Xagrab! Where you been you kriffin’ chiphead. Kerek is about the blow a gasket with you disappearing! I made excuses as much as I could, but you better have a good reason you gone or a good lie. We go see him. He’s down at the 4 1/2 Bar now. You lucky he’s happy drunk. You not so lucky if he’s mad drunk.”

At the 4 1/2, Kerek, a grizzled human with a scarred face. sits at the corner booth. “Were ya been Xagrab, I’ve been trying to comm you for days?!”
“We’re getting the jewel and all the money, no comms, comms bad, comms tracked.”
“Yeah. Yeah, well the sooner we get the Hutt gets he’s jewel the better and we can get back to Nar Shaddaa. Bought tired of being stuck with that slug. Look I want you on duty tomorrow with me to escort the Hutt to brunch at The Three Beldons Buffet.”
“I like buffets. Good food.”
“Something tells me the Hutt ain’t gunna share with us. You’re to meet us at the lobby of the Yarith Bespin Hotel where he’s staying. Got that?”
“Meet at the hotel. Go to buffet. Got it.”
“And here – take this comm and answer it when I call next time.”
“Got it.”
As Xagrab leaves the bar he tosses the comm.

Later, everyone is back at the apartment when Xagrab arrives. He announces to the assembled group_"I’ve got an in to the auction. I work for the Hutt. I’m security."_ The others aren’t sure if that’s something that just happened or why Xagrab is on Bespin in the first place and asking him doesn’t do much to clear it up.

“Gunsha Murglak” toils away at planning the computer spike needed to slice the bank when an alarm goes off. On the wall screen four images appear. One a few out the front door where 3 Bespin Wing Guard stand. Another a top down view of the front entrance showing the same 3 Wing Guard. The next the main hall to the left showing 3 more Wing Guard. And the last showing to the right of the main hall with a Wing Guard Commander with a handheld holoprojected image.

Aris comes out from the rear room dressed in regal purple gown, putting an earring on. She looks up to the wallscreen and gasps! “You idiot!”, she shouts at Gunsha. She waves he hand and the last image enlarges to fill the screen. The holo image he holds is of Gunsha. “They’ve already made you!… and we haven’t even begun” Over the intercom, “Bespin Wing Guard! Open up, we have some questions” Aris begins to pace, “We have to get rid of them – Ideas – now!”

After a little debate, it’s decided that Gunsha should escape out the balcony. Using Guffy’s climbing gear he scales up to the next level and waits while Aris and Aanchi deal with the authorities. Guffy and Kraus sit looking bored at the wallscreen and Xagrab makes a mess in the kitchen attempting to look like the help.

“Unauthorized attempts to access The Central Bank of Bespin have been traced to this apartment. We’re looking for a individual seen accessing a public terminal and then coming here before the breaches were made.” Aanchi does a convincing job at passing this off as the reason they thought the apartment was broken into. The guards question why they didn’t report it, but she tells them they couldn’t be sure it wasn’t just the cyborg assistant they have, “He’s been… malfunctioning. And there was nothing missing so… Excuse us, but we were just about go out for the evening.” She indicates Guffy and Kraus on the couch and lets the guards fill in the details, but the guards brush it off. “That’s fine we’ll examine the apartment while you’re away.” “Is that really necessary if we have nothing to report missing?” “We still need to examine the computer… I’m afraid we’ll have to confiscate it” “Oh, very well. Xagrab would you bring the computer terminal to the officers.” “Yes. Yes. I’ll bring it.” Xagrab rips out the terminal without unhooking it and smashes the sides of it as he carries it over. It wont be turning on anytime soon, but Aris knows that they’ll have droids able to access the data within a day or so regardless. She comms her father and then leaves for the casino with Aanchi. The guys bring Gunsha back in from outside.

Later, Arend arrives with his silver protocol droid carrying a new computer. “Do try to be more careful with this one” Kraus tells him that they’ll need to get to the cloudcar to work on it for the race and get a feel for flying it, but Arend informs them it wont be available till midday tomorrow. In the meantime they can go to Cloud Scape Tours and get a rental using his offices as reference. “Now, we’ll have to deal with the authorities sooner rather then later. They mustn’t suspect any one of us.”

At the Pair O’Dice Casino, Aanchi heads to the sabacc tables and finds the two members of the Stormhawks. She attempts to grill them over the rumor of their marriage, but gets no answers. She concocts a plan to have Chara Tull catch her with Gerrol Hunn before the race to throw off their teamwork. At the bar she spots Leina, Shreya Ordassa’s friend, sitting near Aris. She gets Aris in on convincing her they’re the only two left of a girls night out. Leina is despondent, upset over Shreya not being around. Too busy with procuring the jewel over her ex, Mil Mikkir. She does spill some that there is someone else around from Shreya’s life, a twi’lek. Aanchi plays up that if Shreya can get this jewel then she’ll be able to see her friend and have the nice vacation she’s wanting.

Meanwhile, Aris has left to get into an argument with Vorse Tabarith, her husband. He’s drunk and yelling about a betrayal of one of his men. After Aris storms away Aanchi speaks to Vorse, who, while drunk, attempts to compose himself. He apologies for the outburst, hopes shes’ having a good time at his casino. They talk about the upcoming Grand Prix and asks if he’ll be attending the race. He tells her he has money on the Dugg racing team.

She plays to his ego talking about what a big shot he must be and how “that woman”, Aris, is lucky to have him and she’s sure she’ll come around. He begins to talk about the jewel and how she’ll be kowtowed once he’s got it for her, but he talks about a Hutt wanting it too. She again plays to his ego saying that he can’t have a “dirty Hutt” take it over him. Vorse is spurred by this, seems to get an idea and agrees. He calls to the droid bartender telling it that Aanchi drinks free the rest of the night then digs into his pocket and leaves a handful of chips totaling 150 credits for her and leaves.